Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 15.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Charles Pollack MD MA Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, PA 19107 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Pollack:: We are continuing research on PRAXBIND in the ongoing global phase III patient study, RE-VERSE AD™. RE-VERSE AD includes two groups of dabigatran patients: those who had serious bleeding or those who required an urgent procedure. At ACC, we presented results from an updated interim analysis from 123 patients enrolled in RE-VERSE AD™, which showed a single 5g of PRAXBIND immediately reversed the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran in all patients evaluated. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, NYU, Women's Heart Health / 06.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nathaniel Smilowitz, MD Fellow, Cardiovascular Disease NYU Langone Medical Center MeicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Smilowitz: Myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a leading cause of death worldwide.  In the majority of patients with MI, examination of the coronary blood vessels by angiography reveals an obstruction that limits blood flow to the heart muscle.  However, some patients develop MI with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA) at angiography.  This condition is identified more commonly in younger patients and women, and in prior studies, in-hospital death after MINOCA was lower than for MI with obstructive coronary artery disease (MI-CAD).  Despite favorable outcomes associated with MINOCA, young women paradoxically have overall higher in-hospital death after MI in comparison to younger men.  Although sex differences in post-MI mortality are known to vary with age, the interaction between age, sex, and the presence of obstructive coronary artery disease at angiography on death post-MI had not been previously established. In this study, we confirmed that in-hospital mortality is lower after MINOCA than MI-CAD and that women are more likely to have MINOCA than men.  No sex difference in mortality was observed among patients with MINOCA, but women of all ages had significantly higher mortality after MI-CAD than men.  With advancing age, mortality increased to a greater degree in patients with MI-CAD than MINOCA and in men vs. women. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 26.03.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eric Alexander Secemsky, MD, MSc Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Secemsky: Strategies to reduce bleeding, such as the selective use of procedural anticoagulants, have become an integral component of current percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) practice to decrease adverse outcomes. For instance, previous randomized clinical trials had demonstrated that use of bivalirudin, a direct thrombin inhibitor, reduces major bleeding events following PCI among patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) compared with unfractionated heparin (UFH). These findings resulted in a major increase in bivalirudin use during PCI. However, more recent trials have contradicted these results and created uncertainty as to the relative safety and effectiveness of bivalirudin therapy. In addition, current United States guidelines do not endorse a primary antithrombotic strategy during PCI, leaving the choice of procedural anticoagulant to the discretion of the physician operator. As such, we wanted to determine how bivalirudin was currently being used among United States PCI operators and how usage may have changed in light of these trial findings. (more…)